Children Chasing Drugs Instead of Balls
Susan.S, FCN News Agency: These days, in some provinces of the country, the sight of children chasing drugs instead of balls has become a bitter yet normalized scene. Many middle-aged Iranians who spent their adolescence four decades ago remember well that if a teenager smoked a cigarette back then, their elders and neighborhood acquaintances would turn heaven and earth upside down to set them straight. But today, many shameful things in Iran are concealed by the indifference of people and, more importantly, by officials.
Regardless of the fact that some of these shameful acts are branded on the forehead of every Iranian citizen, the wandering of addicted children is a stain of shame. The latest statistics show that the number of addicted children between 7 and 11 years old in the country, particularly in deprived provinces such as Sistan and Baluchestan, is rapidly increasing.
These statistics also include students, some of whom, by exchanging drugs in educational environments, have engaged not only in consumption but also in distribution. Meanwhile, regime officials have whitewashed the reality of the problem and presented unrealistic statistics.
It was the first time in 2008 that a responsible official at the Anti-Narcotics Headquarters announced the number of addicted students in the country as 35,000 people.
Five years later, another official at the same organization spoke of 75,000 addicted students, which showed growth of more than 100 percent in five years.
Two years later, in April 2015, the Deputy Head of the Anti-Narcotics Headquarters announced the number of addicted students in the country as 130,000 people. Again, 100 percent growth, but this time over two years.
However, two years later, the Director General of the Office of Prevention of Social Harms in Education, ignoring observable realities in the country, especially in schools, announced that the number of students at risk of addiction was 136,000 people, with the majority of addicted students being over 15 years old.
Whereas in the latest statistics from the Anti-Narcotics Headquarters, one percent of the country’s students are trapped in addiction, which with a figure of more than 13.5 million students means more than 135,000 addicted students. However, the Ministry of Education, as one of the main responsible bodies, covers up these realities and is unwilling to announce or confirm accurate statistics.
This is while, according to Farid Barati, Head of the Center for Prevention and Treatment Development of Addiction at the Welfare Organization of the Country, currently no specific authority is accountable for this problem.
He emphasized in recent weeks in a conversation with ILNA News Agency that the Ministry of Health was supposed to, in coordination with the Education Organization, take measures to treat addicted children and students. But it is unclear what has come of this arrangement. With this arrangement and welfare cycles, there is no longer a direct authority to deal with the problem. In a sense, the perpetual problem of parallel actions by various institutions has this time targeted Iranian children.
Under these circumstances, it is regrettable that recently the Director General of the Research and Training Office of the Anti-Narcotics Headquarters spoke of the accomplishments of the Islamic Republic in relation to preventing the spread of addiction in the country.
According to ISNA, he said in this regard: “In Iran, significant measures are being taken by 35 organizations to develop primary prevention activities from addiction in targeted centers, including schools, in such a way that the approach of primary prevention from addiction has been considered as the country’s first priority by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, and with the allocation of 50 percent of capacity and facilities, efforts are being made to prevent the vulnerability of society’s statistics.”
